Issues In Professional Practice Course Requirement

Beginning with Fall of 2000, all graduate students entering MS programs in the School of Engineering must satisfy a two-unit "Issues in Professional Practice Course Requirement" for graduation. The purpose of this requirement is to help our MS graduate students develop a better understanding of the human dimension of their professional work. This requirement is especially meaningful given the broad humanistic role of programs at a Jesuit Catholic University. Courses that satisfy this requirement should provide enrichment to a student's program in a dimension that is both relevant to the practice of engineering and consistent with the elements of conscience and compassion. In its effort to develop all of this, the School of Engineering has collaborated with other centers and institutes on campus, such as the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Bannan Institute for Jesuit Education and Christian Values, and Center for Science, Technology & Society.

Although courses that satisfy this two-unit requirement will complement a student's preferred technical specialty, they will normally be different in content from the technical course stem in their program. Courses that satisfy this requirement will engage one or more of the following topical areas:

Developing sensitivity to other cultures in the local or global workplace
Understanding the social impacts and implications of engineering practice
Understanding the legal issues that impact society and engineering practice
Understanding the ethical dimensions of engineering practice
Understanding the environmental implications of engineering practices
Understanding and developing responsibility for professional service
Additional courses that satisfy one or more of these topic areas may be approved to satisfy this requirement by the Chairs/Deans Council in the School of Engineering.

The following courses are currently approved to satisfy this requirement:

COEN 288 Software Ethics (prerequisites required)
ENGR 201 The Culture of Engineering
ENGR 210 Engineering Ethics
ENGR 230 Law, Technology, and Intellectual Property
ENGR 300 Societal Issues in Engineering Professional Practice
EMGT 267 Interpersonal Relations in Engineering Management I
EMGT 269 Human Resource Development and the Engineering Manager
EGMT 273 Group Dynamics in Project Management
EMGT 319 Human Interaction I